Message:

What are we to make of this story of a very unfamiliar Jesus, acting in what seems for him a very strange manner. To me, this makes him a very human person, whose very humanity (or apparent lack of it on this occasion) makes him a very normal person, a stereotypical man of his times. We may be more understanding of his humanity when we feel more familiar with his sufferings, even his serious doubts, in his final hours in the Garden of Gethsemane. In reminding us of this story, we are being reminded about what we believe – that God sent his son Jesus into our world as a human being, to live, and to die, among us, and for us.

And, in this instance, we see the human Jesus change his mind, realise he’s made a mistake, and doing something about it. The woman has an answer for him in response to his taunt: Yes, Lord, she said, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table.Even the dregs of humanity, as Jesus was implying she was, get and eat the meagre leftovers. And this is enough to show Jesus how wrong he was to let his human emotions and prejudices get the upper hand in this particular instance. She convinced him that she was worth helping, that he should change his mind, and he did – Jesus worked another of his many miracles of healing at a distance.

Just in case we think it strange that Jesus, being the Son of God, should change his mind, we also recall that God himself from time to time did the same thing. As demonstrated in the history of the people of Israel detailed in the Old Testament. Time after time they stepped out of line, failed to do what God wanted them to do, and God punished them and vowed he would have nothing more to do with them, yet still kept on loving them, hoping they would change. Time after time we, too, fail, yet God continues to love us without reservation.  

That fallible and very human Jesus who was prepared and able to change his mind has a message and a challenge for all of us today. The message is that until we draw our very last breath we can still change our minds and accept Jesus into our lives as our personal Lord and Saviour. Jesus keeps the door open for us at all times – we just have to make up our minds to go in! The challenge is, if we know we’ve not already done so, that we stop putting it off, we stop making those excuses, we do it now, rather than later. Yes, by our very human nature we are disobedient to God, so we are sinners – but it is to us in our sin, in our constant failure and unworthiness, that God through Jesus offers his saving grace to all of us, all the time.

Let us accept ourselves as we are and in our own distress cry out ourselves to Jesus – save us, help us. Then we will hear Jesus, the human son of God, say to us as he said to that Canaanite woman: you have great faith! Your request is granted.

Hymn: STF no. 503/H&P no. 267

Love divine, all loves excelling